Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has told councils to act quickly to shut down unauthorised sites under new guidance and legal powers published today

Eric Pickles has been accused of "grandstanding" and reinforcing "negative stereotypes"

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The Government have issued new guidelines to tackle illegal traveller sites, protest camps and squatters from both public and private land, as well as tackling mess caused by them.

However, the new guidance from the Department of Communities and Local Government released today and outlining the legal powers councils and landowners can use, have been accused of sparking an "open season on ethnic minorities".

He said: "At the moment it seems like a theme. Recently we have had the Go Home campaign, then we have the bongo bongo thing going on.

Mr Jones also dismissed the summary of powers sent directly to local council leaders as "nothing new".

He added: "Local authorities already know how to manage unauthorised encampments, they don't need the Government to tell them how to do it.

"This latest statement Mr Pickles has put out doesn't have anything new in it. It doesn't have any new powers or anything like that.

"It just seems to me like a bit of grandstanding."

Mr Pickles has revoked Labour's Equality and Diversity in Planning guidance, which he said told councils not to take enforcement action against unauthorised travellers, and suggested planning rules should be applied differently to individuals depending on their background.

Powers that can be used include temporary stop notices to stop and remove unauthorised caravans, pre-emptive injunctions that protect vulnerable land in advance from unauthorised encampments and possession orders to remove trespassers from land.

The DCLG said the move is aimed at preventing another incident like Dale Farm, where a long-running legal battle was fought before bailiffs moved in to evict travellers from the site in Essex.

At the peak of the operation, 308 officers were involved, including those brought in from the Metropolitan Police, Thames Valley, Avon and Somerset, Kent, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire under mutual aid arrangements.

The clearance, which resulted in violent clashes, followed a decade-long row over unauthorised plots on the six-acre site.

The total cost of the clearance was £7 million, with Basildon Council spending £ 4.8 million.

Mr Pickles denied the powers were an attack on the traveller community and said £60 million was being made available to local authorities for new legal sites.